Sunday, November 29, 2015

The
time has come for change. For the past
quarter century and more, the Indianapolis address for Adventist Word Radio has
received listener mail and reception reports from more than 100 countries all
around the world. It has been our
privilege to respond to all of the incoming mail, both postal and email, and to
send out uncounted thousands of QSL cards.

However,
because of major health issues for us both (my wife as well as myself) and due
to our advancing years (we are both nearing our mid-80s) it has become
necessary for me to reduce my work load, just as soon as possible. It is with great reluctance that therefore I
announce the fact that the processing of listener reception reports will be
transferred from Indianapolis to a new address in Silver Spring Maryland. Staff at AWR headquarters will take over the
processing of all reception reports addressed to Adventist World Radio. They are located in
the building complex at the world headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist
denomination on the edge of suburban Washington DC.

Effective
at the end of the year, the Indianapolis post office box address will be
closed, and emails addressed to the Indianapolis address will no longer be
received. Likewise, postal mail
addressed to the AWR street address in Indianapolis will no longer be processed
locally. The new address for all
reception reports addressed to Adventist World Radio worldwide is:-

Box
10188, Silver Spring, MD 20914, USA.

Every
item of postal mail received at the
Indianapolis box address up to December 31 will be processed here and QSL cards
will be sent out in the usual way from this location. It will take some time, well into the New
Year, to complete the processing of all pending mail, but each item will be
processed and all QSL cards will be posted out.

We
might add that a new QSL card has just been received, and this card will be the
last QSL card ever issued from this address.
In addition, a new batch of many different types of AWR curios and
souvenirs has been received, and these items will be sent out to listeners who
enter our big annual DX contest. These
souvenirs and curios will never become available again.

Remember
to enter our big annual DX contest which has been extended till the end of
November. Many awards, and souvenirs,
and new QSL cards are available, as well as a new award for listeners in New
Zealand and Australia; a copy of the colorful Australian Radio History by Dr.
Bruce Carty.

In
this year’s contest, you are invited to design the details for your
own contest entry. You are invited to
tell what is your best QSL since our last contest, and to provide three AWR
reception reports.

Complete details are available from
many DX club magazines, and from various websites. You may also contact Wavescan in Indianapolis
for an email version of the contest details.

In
order to grant opportunity for listeners in Australia and New Zealand, the
closing date for the 2015 DX contest has been extended by one month. All entries worldwide now need to be
postmarked by the end of November, and received at the Indianapolis postal
address by the end of December. Details
regarding the results of the contest will be announced in Wavescan in mid
January.

It
is intended that the AWR DX program, “Wavescan”, will continue as usual in
the same regular way. We are grateful
for the DX reports from our DX reporters in India, Japan, Bangladesh,
Philippines and Australia. We are
grateful for the professional production of this weekly broadcast by Jeff White
in the studios of WRMI in Okeechobee Florida, and for the reading of regular
features by Ray Robinson in the studios of KVOH in Los Angeles, and for the
widespread broadcast of Wavescan via the shortwave facilities of Adventist
World Radio, WRMI, WWCR and KVOH.

This schedule and all worldwide stations operating on shortwave schedules, will be available in the soon to be released winter edition of International Shortwave Broadcast Guide, available in December 2015. The release date will be forthcoming.Gayle Van Horn

This schedule and all worldwide stations operating on shortwave schedules, will be available in the soon to be released winter edition of International Shortwave Broadcast Guide, available in December 2015. The release date will be forthcoming.Gayle Van Horn

Friday, November 20, 2015

Simultaneous text and
image. One experiment will be the
simultaneous transmission of text and an image. The text of the VOA News story
about men overeating will be transmitted in MFSK32 at the usual center audio
frequency of 1500 Hz. The MFSK32 image accompanying this story will be
transmitted simultaneously at a center audio frequency of 2200 Hz. You will need
two instances of Fldigi; that is, start Fldigi once, then start it again. If you
cannot run two instances of Fldigi (some operating systems don’t allow it), you
can decode the image at 2200 Hz later from a recording. (You could also run
Fldigi and MultiPSK simultaneously.)

At 15 seconds after the text
begins, a tuning signal will help you find the exact center frequency near 2200
Hz. The image itself will start 20 seconds after the tone begins.

I had to reduce the audio level
of both the text and image by 3 dB so that the combined audio of the text and
image would not overload the transmitter and your receiver. This simultaneous
transmission will be followed by the image only, at 1500 Hz, and at full audio
level.

QR codes. The broadcast will include two QR codes. They look
like this …

You scan the QR code, usually
with your mobile device, to obtain information.

The first QR code will follow
the VOA News Story about Middle East hackers. It will provide the link to the
full text of the story. The second QR code will be at the end of the show, with
the VOA Radiogram transmission schedule.

I don’t know much about QR
codes, so your advice would be appreciated. Are the transmitted QR codes too
big? Unnecessarily big? How small can I make them? (The smaller they are, the
less time required to transmit them.)

Here is the lineup for VOA
Radiogram, program 138, 21-22November
2015, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

The Mighty
KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK32
Sunday at 0130 UTC (Saturday 8:30 pm EST) on 7395 kHz, via Germany. This is part
of the KBC broadcast to North America Saturday 2300 UTC to Sunday 0200 UTC on
7395 kHz. Reception reports for KBC reception and decoding to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

Thanks for your reception
reports. Today I hope to answer the last of the reports from program 130, then
I’ll put together the MFSK image gallery from program 131.

Product Announcement
DXtreme Reception Log X (Version 10.0)
DXtreme Software™ has released a new version of its popular logging program for radio monitoring enthusiasts: DXtreme Reception Log X™ (Version 10.0).
Like other logging programs, DXtreme Reception Log X lets listeners and DXers log the stations they’ve heard. But unlike other logging programs, Reception Log X provides advanced features that can add a new dimension to logging activities.
New Features in Version 10.0
 Afreet Ham CAP1 Integration — Lets users run short- and long-path propagation predictions from the Schedule Checker, Reception Log, Countries, and Transmitter Sites windows. Reception Log X sends key data to Ham CAP which, in turn, displays a chart showing the signal-to-noise-ratio prediction by time and frequency and a Mercator projection showing the current propagation prediction for the path between the user and the target station.
 Improv Imaging™ — A dedicated tab on the Reception Log window, Improv Imaging lets users associate ad hoc images with log entries. Users can capture from their screen, scan from their image scanner, or paste from the Clipboard any images they want to associate with a displayed log entry, such as screen captures of stations received on digital applications, waterfall displays, Amateur TV pictures, Ham CAP maps showing propagation conditions at the time of reception, etc. An Improv Image Explorer lets uses peruse their collection of Improv images, and call up the log entries with which they are associated.
 Preview QSL Image Viewer — Is now larger and expandable on the Verification tab of the Reception Log window, and the new QSL Image Explorer lets uses peruse their collection of QSL images, and call up the log entries with which they are associated.
 Colorful User Experience Enhancements — Lets users set the foreground and background colors of heading and data rows on grids throughout the program — one set of foreground and background colors for odd data rows, and another for even data rows — making it easier to view schedules on the Schedule Checker, log entries on the Last Log Entries grid and window, and data in Reports.
Advanced Features
 Schedule Checker™ — Lets users import schedules from Aoki, EiBi, and FCC AM web sites and display that schedule data according to the filter criteria they specify. A list box lets users switch between the schedules at will. And, depending on the schedule type, users can filter schedule information by band, frequency, station, country, city, state, time of day, language, antenna direction, and target area. When the What’s On Now? function is activated, the schedule refreshes automatically at the top of each hour for Aoki and EiBi schedules.
For each schedule item, Schedule Checker queries the Reception Log X database to let users know – by means of user-defined, foreground and background display colors – whether they need to monitor a station for a brand-new or verified country. Schedule Checker also displays bearing and distance, runs Ham CAP propagation predictions and DX Atlas azimuth plots2, tunes supported radios to schedule frequencies when double-clicking schedule items3, and starts log entries for scheduled stations.
2
 Last Log Entries Grid— Located on the Reception Log window, the grid shows up to 5000 of the most recent log entries added. Its records can be sorted, and double-clicking records displays detailed data on the Reception Log window.
Users can resize the grid columns and scroll horizontally to columns that do not appear initially. But because the names of stations and NASWA countries can be quite long, users can also display a larger, resizable Last Log Entries window. A Properties dialog box lets users change the order of columns, the number of log entries to display, and the foreground and background colors and font attributes of grid headings and data rows system-wide.
 Reception Reports — Users can create customized paper and e-mail reception reports plus club report entries for reporting catches to clubs and magazines.
 Social Media Posting — When users add or display a log entry, Reception Log X prepares a post announcing their DX catch and displays it on the Social Media Post tab. From there, users can drag the post to their favorite social media web site(s) to share their catch with others4.
Using the Script Editor window, users can create and edit social media scripts that format social media posts to their liking. A browse button lets users select the script they want to use. Three scripts come with Reception Log X.
 Direct Print SWL and Address Labels — Users can prepare SWL and Address labels for direct output to their printers, and print labels one-at-a-time or in any number up to the maximum number of labels on each page of label stock.
 Rig Control — Retrieves the frequency and mode from supported radios and permits tuning from the Schedule Checker and Reception Log windows.
 Multimedia Features — An embedded Audio facility lets users maintain an audio archive of stations heard. An integrated QSL Imaging™ facility lets users scan, display, and explore QSL and e-QSL images.
 Performance Reporting — Produces reports that track the performance of the user’s monitoring station, and lets users FTP those reports to user-provided Web space for remote access. Reports integrate with DX Atlas to generate pin maps.
 Support for Monitoring Amateur Radio Operators — Users can retrieve call sign and address information for monitored hams from optional Web services (HamQTH.com, Buckmaster™ HamCall™, and QRZ XML Logbook Data) and send automatic eQSL requests to monitored hams via www.eQSL.cc.
 Documentation — Includes on-line Help and a Getting Started Guide.
Operating Systems, Pricing, Contact Information
DXtreme Reception Log X runs in 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows® 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista®, and XP. It retails for $89.95 USD worldwide for electronic distribution. Pricing for CD versions and upgrading users is available on our Web site. All prices include product support by Internet e-mail. For more information, visit www.dxtreme.com
or contact Bob Raymond at bobraymond@dxtreme.com.
1 — Licenses for Afreet Ham CAP and Omni-Rig are required to use Ham CAP. 2 — A license for Afreet DX Atlas is required to perform plots and create pin reports. 3 — A license for Afreet Omni-Rig is required to use rig control with radios supported by Omni-Rig. 4 — The social media web site must be capable of accepting drag-and-drop operations; for sites that do not, users can copy and paste from the Clipboard.
(Bob Raymond)

Back
in the year 1861, the British government issued a decree in which the
definition of an island was described.
This government decree stated that any small dot projecting above the
surface of the ocean may be described as an island, if there is an inhabitant
living on it, or if there is sufficient pasturage for just one sheep.That means then, that Willis Island, off the
eastern coast of Australia, is therefore officially classified as an island.

Willis Island lies in the Coral Sea
some 300 miles off the eastern coast of Queensland and out beyond the furthest
edges of the Great Barrier Reef. A
little cluster of small islands and cays stretches for 7½ miles running northwest-southeast,
and Willis Island is the third and last island to the south.

Willis Island is aligned in the same
northwest-southeast direction; it is an elliptical island around 1600 feet long
and 500 feet wide, with the highest prominence at an elevation of just 30
feet. There is very little growing on
the island, though it is described as a very noisy island with the cackles and
the calls of numerous birds, day and night.
The Booby Gannet can dive and catch and swallow flying fish, and the
Frigate Bird can squabble with the Booby Gannet, thus making it disgorge its
recently caught prey, which then becomes food for the aggressor.

This little island was discovered in
1853 by Captain Pearson aboard the ship “Cashmere”,
and it was named “Willis” in honor of the owner of the ship. Seven years later, the island was surveyed by
Captain H. M. Denham aboard the royal navy vessel HMS “Herald”, and in more
recent times it was absorbed into the Australian Coral Seas Island
Territory. Willis is Australia’s (and
the world’s) smallest inhabited island, and you could take a leisurely walk
around the entire island in 15 minutes.

During the year 1921, John King
Davis installed a small wireless station on Willis Island, together with
ancillary buildings and a residence for two personnel. This small habitation was established in order to furnish advance
weather information to mainland Australia, and the entire project was under the
auspices of the government Bureau of Meteorology. The term of duty back then for the two
officers on this lonely and isolated island was 6 months.

The new wireless equipment consisted
of a 1½ kW spark transmitter and a crystal
set receiver, together with a power generator and a wooden aerial mast. The transmitter operated on either 300 or 500
kHz for communication with the AWA maritime station VIC at Cooktown on the
Queensland coast. In those days, 500 kHz
was a main operating channel, simply because it was the natural resonant
frequency of an untuned antenna on an average sized ocean going vessel.

The official opening day for the new
wireless station with the irregular callsign CGI was November 7, 1921, and the
event was celebrated by raising the Australian flag on the radio mast.

In 1928, Eric Riethmuller built a
small shortwave transmitter at the York Street facility of AWA in Sydney, and
he took this equipment to Willis Island for use during his term of
service. Thus, voice communication in
addition to messages in Morse Code was enabled by the operators at station CGI
on Willis. This transmitter operated on
32 meters shortwave.

Three years later, AWA took over
station CGI and they incorporated it into their widespread Coastal Radio
Network which spanned the entire continent of Australia, and beyond throughout
the islands in the South Pacific. At
this stage, the callsign on Willis was regularized to VIQ, a callsign that was
held previously on Macquarie Island; and at the same time, AWA extended the
term of service to one year.

In 1934, Paddy Whelan began a year
long stint as the radio operator on Willis Island, together with
meteorologist R. MacKenzie. Whelan, whose home was apparently in country
Queensland, was already an amateur radio operator with the call VK4KR. He took his own amateur radio equipment to
the island, and also a bundle of gramophone records.

Soon after he arrived on the island,
Whelan began a series of radio broadcasts over his own small transmitter in
which he played records and made station announcements. These broadcasts were radiated with a power
of 10 watts on 1185 kHz under his home callsign VK4KR. In those days, it was not only legal for an
amateur radio operator to make out-of-hours program broadcasts on mediumwave,
but they were encouraged to do so.

A listener in New Zealand, the well
known Merv Branks at Winton in the South Island, heard one of these low power
radio broadcasts and he sent a reception report to the station. In due course, Branks received a QSL letter
of confirmation, perhaps the only QSL ever issued for these special program
broadcasts from lonely isolated Willis Island.
This unique QSL letter is held in the archives of the Hocken Library in
Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand.

Beginning in 1933, the very new
passenger/cargo ship Malaita 2, began a regular periodic voyage from Sydney, up
to New Guinea and nearby islands, and then back again to Sydney, a six week
double journey. As the ship passed
Willis Island, sealed cans containing mail, newspapers and food packages, were
tossed into the ocean, and the resident operators on the island would go out in
a canoe to retrieve the floating tin cans.

It was subsequently estimated that
the islanders were able to retrieve about 50% of these highly prized deliveries
over the years. Even to this day,
envelopes rubber stamped with the ship name, Malaita, and Willis Island
delivery, are valuable collector’s
items. This delivery of mail by throwing
a sealed Tin Can into the ocean was in vogue in earlier years at three other
widely separated locations: Cape Race in Newfoundland, Cocos Island in the
Indian ocean, and Niu’afoou in the Tonga group in the South Pacific.

During World War 2, it was initially
thought that the staff on Willis Island could be in danger due to an attack
from an enemy submarine. However, it was
subsequently discovered that the Japanese had deciphered the coded weather
messages, and they used the information to their own advantage. Thus, Willis Island was safe.

The facilities on Willis Island were
completely rebuilt in the early 1950s; and then in 1957 Cyclone Clara severely
damaged the station with the onslaught of wind gusts rated at 125 mph.

While
repairing the damaged facilities in the aftermath of Clara, shortwave voice
equipment completely replaced the usage of Morse Code. Then eight years later again, the transmitter
equipment was changed to SSB single side band operation.

Some time during the year 2009, a
passing cruise ship was in radio communication with Willis Island, and the
radio operator on the island made a special radio broadcast to the ship, giving
the long and interesting history of the island.
This broadcast from the island was received aboard the ship, and the
programming was fed into the
ship’s public address system for.the benefit of all passengers.

Another cyclone, this time in 2011
and named Yasi, buffeted the island with wind gusts up to 115 mph and this time
the impact of wind and wave modified the shape of the island. It took nearly a year to bring all of the
island’s radio and weather equipment back to
parr.

Over the years, among all of the 250
people who have served on Willis Island, only four women have been granted this
opportunity, and these were:-

We might add that Denise Allen
subsequently joined an expedition to Antarctica in her role as a trained
meteorologist. It would be interesting
to learn as to whether E. Foley who served on Willis Island in the 1990s was in
some way related to Eileen Foley who was the manager and announcer for the
shipboard radio station VK9MI aboard the Kanimbla in the 1930s.

These days, the facilities on Willis Island
are quite uptodate and modern, with many of the same amenities you would find
in the homes on the Australian mainland.
You can take a picturesque two minute aerial tour of Willis Island on
Youtube by clicking on Willis Island Aerial View.

Here is the schedule for the next test
broadcasts of Marconi Radio International:

21st November 2015, from 1300 to 1430
UTC

22nd November 2015, from 0900 to 1300 UTC

25th November 2015, from 1800 to 1930
UTC

Our frequency is 11390 kHz and power in the
region of 30 watts. Test broadcasts consist of non stop music, station
identification announcements in Italian, English, Spanish as well as DX shows in
English and Italian.

Until now reception reports, found to be
correct, have been received from 13 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain,
Switzerland and Ukraine. We are anxious to receive feedbacks from more
countries!

We
come now to the fifth topic in this mini-series of presentations on the radio
scene in the high mountainous kingdom of Nepal, and on this occasion, we look
at the regional radio stations throughout their country, as well as the information
regarding QSL cards from Radio Nepal.

Beginning in the early 1980s, a
whole new network of regional radio broadcasting stations was installed
throughout Nepal, with financial aid and technical assistance from Japan. Initially, the program feed from new studios
in Kathmandu was by shortwave to the regional locations, though a higher
quality program feed became available subsequently when a system of microwave
units originating in Kathmandu and fanning out to the regional stations was
inaugurated.

The first new facilities were
officially inaugurated in a special ceremony on May 9, 1983, with a new suite
of studios in Kathmandu, new mediumwave and shortwave transmitters on the edge
of Kathmandu, and a new regional mediumwave station, complete with studios and
a 100 kW transmitter at Pokhara, 85 miles north west of the capital city. The operating channel for this new regional
station was 684 kHz and its signal was heard quite widely in the subcontinental
areas. An additional 10 kW transmitter
was installed as a standby unit.

Two more 100 kW regional stations with their own
studios and an emergency 10 kW transmitter were constructed in Dhanakuta in
eastern Nepal (648 kHz), and at Surkhet in the midwestern area of their country
(576 kHz). Two additional smaller
stations at 10 kW each were installed at Dipayal in the far west (810 kHz), and
Bardibas, 40 miles south east of the city (1143 kHz). This latter station was originally intended
to operate as a second program stream for the Kathmandu Valley, though these
days it seems to be off the air.

Interestingly, Radio Nepal announced
some time around the turn of the century that they planned to erect a regional
shortwave station, in addition to the main stations on the edge of
Kathmandu. This new station was to be
co-located with a mediumwave station that was already on the air; it was
intended to give coverage to the western areas of the country; and it would be
a safety backup facility if any event should take the main Kathmandu station
off the air.

The location for this intended new
shortwave station would be near Surkhet, cosited with the 100 kW mediumwave
station already on the air on the western side of the country. However, nothing more has been heard about
this projected station during the past 15 years.

It is true, that there are many QSL
cards from Radio Nepal in the collections of international radio monitors in
various parts of the world. However,
obtaining a QSL from Radio Nepal could always be quite difficult. The Heritage collection in Indianapolis holds
many such cards, though most of them were obtained during personal visits to
the station.

For a couple of years, an onsite
volunteer did issue QSL cards on behalf of Radio Nepal. This was back around 1983 and 1984 and the
Honorary QSL Secretary was Miss Mohini Shepherd. During this time, Mohini was also providing
uptodate news and information about Radio Nepal for broadcast in the old AWR DX
program, Radio Monitors International.

The early QSL cards from Radio Nepal
were generally plain text cards with occasional printing variations, though in
the 1990s, a full color country snow scene was featured on their regular QSL
card.

Back around half a century ago, it
was thought that there was a small BFBS British Forces Broadcasting station on
the air at the British Army Gurkha base at Dharan in eastern Nepal. However, it was said subsequently that this
broadcast facility was simply a cable radio service over the camp amplifier
system. These days though, BFBS is on
the air on FM in Kathmandu itself.

More than a thousand years ago, the
Lenape people, a sub tribe of the Delaware Native Americans, arrived into the
area of North America now known as New York and New Jersey. In those days, they harvested the oyster beds
in the tidal flats of New York Harbor for an abundant supply of food.

In fact, when the Europeans began to
settle in the nearby localities, they named a cluster of three islands in New
York Harbor as the Oyster Islands. These
three islands were individually designated as Black Tom, Ellis and Bedloe’s.

On the map, Black Tom Island
originally seemed to have the shape of a Black Cat, though some authorities
state that the island was named after an early resident. Originally, Black Tom Island was a separate
geographic unit of 20 acres, though due to land reclamation in the harbor, this
island was ultimately absorbed into the New Jersey shoreline.

Ellis Island gained its fame as the
point of entrance for European migrants processing into the United States, and
during its more than half century of official duty, more than twelve million
people passed through its corridors.
Originally, Ellis Island was very small at only 2¾ acres, though through the harbor
reclamation projects, it was expanded to 27 acres. These days, Ellis Island is simply a major
historic tourist attraction.

Nearby is another Island, Governor’s Island, though this much larger
island is not listed as one of the original Oyster Islands. This island was originally 69 acres in area,
and landfill from underground railway tunnels in New York City has increased
its size to 172 acres.

Bedloe’s Island was named in 1609 in honor of an early Dutch
colonist, Isaac Bedloe. Over the years,
this island has changed hands between the Dutch and the English and the French
and various American interests on several occasions, until it was ultimately
determined that the island belongs to New York, and the surrounding water
belongs to New Jersey. In 1956, by a
special Act of Congress, Bedloe’s Island was renamed Liberty Island, in honor
of the famous statue, a major tourist attraction that is still standing tall
and proud.

The famous Statue of Liberty was
originally designed for installation at the head of the Suez Canal in Egypt as
a functioning lighthouse. It was
designed by the Frenchman Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi in 1876, and it was first
assembled and displayed in Paris on July 4 six years later; on that occasion,
it was ceremoniously presented to the American ambassador in Paris as a gift
from France to the United States.

Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor was chosen as the American
site for this famous statue, and it was disassembled in Paris during the
following year (1885) and it was then shipped across the Atlantic to New
York. Altogether, the statue was
separated into 350 pieces and packed into 214 packing cases for
transportation.

The French ship, Isere, conveyed the
noble lady to her new home. It is said
that the face that is displayed on the statue was that of the designer’s mother.

As a base for the statue, a cement
pedestal 154 feet thigh and weighing 27,000 tons was constructed; the statue
itself stands almost as high at 151 feet, weighing 225 tons. Re-assembly of the statue on Bedloe’s Island was completed on October 23,
1886.

Five days later, on October 28,
1886, just 129 years ago, President Grover Cleveland presided over the
dedication ceremonies which included a ticker tape parade in New York City that
attracted one million visitors. It was a
cold, wet and windy day.

In 1944, the lights on the statue
flashed out V for victory in Morse Code, as an encouragement during World War 2
when it looked like victory for the allies in Europe and the Pacific might be
somewhere out there on the horizon.

These days, five million visitors
are attracted to Bedloe’s
Liberty Island each year to experience the Statue of Liberty, an important
national symbol in the new world. It is
stated too, that the statue is struck by lightning six hundred times each year.

Two of these small islands in New
York Harbor have featured in events associated with wireless communication and
radio broadcasting, and these were Governor’s
Island and Bedloe’s Island, now better known as Liberty Island.

It is known that a wireless
communication station was in use at the American army Fort Jay on Governor’s Island soon after the end of World
War 1. The usage of this wireless
station was often mentioned in various ways with the station on nearby Bedloe’s
Island, and there were occasions when it was noted with the broadcast of radio
entertainment programming.

In 1920, the callsign on Governor’s Island was listed as WYCB, and
there were occasional mutual program relays to and from WVP on Bedloe’s
Island. These program relays were
usually on the air between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm, when both stations were
temporarily diverted from army communications for the purpose of radiating
entertainment programming.

The total wireless and radio scene
on Bedloe’s-Liberty Island
is these days quite well known. Way back
more than one hundred years ago, an experimental wireless station was installed
on this island at Fort Wood. This was in
the year 1905. Two years later, Fort
Wood was listed in a wireless station directory, though no callsign was
given.

Then in the latter part of October
1908, experimental radio transmissions were conducted between Fort Hancock at
Sandy Hook in New Jersey and Bedloe’s
Island, a distance of 18 miles. The
callsign on Liberty at this stage was FD, and the transmitter in use was a 3 kW
spark unit. At Sandy Hook, a 1 kW spark
transmitter was in use, and gramophone records were played into an open
carbon-style microphone.

At the onset of World War 1 in
Europe (1914) the callsign on Bedloe’s
was WUM; and then during the following year an experimental portable wireless
transmitter was taken to this same island.

In 1920, the callsign in use on Bedloe’s was WVP for army
communications, and for broadcast usage it was officially WZAB, though they
would usually still identify as WVP. At
this stage a longwave 3 kW GE transmitter was in use, the frequency was 206
kHz, and the wire antenna was installed right behind the Statue of Liberty. Broadcast programming was presented live from
what was described as a modest studio.

Spontaneous hour long radio
broadcasts from WVP ended two years later, though the station was still used
for army communications right up until the beginning of World War 2 in Europe.

In 1935, during the era of great
rivalry among the various passenger shipping companies plying their stately
vessels across the Atlantic, the recently launched French liner,” Normandie", was given a
tumultuous welcome on its first visit to New York Harbor. While en route across the Atlantic, the “Normandie"
made several music broadcasts under its communication callsign FNSK for the
benefit of passing ships, and also for the benefit of any landlubber radio
listener on either side of the Atlantic who happened to be at his radio
receiver.

On June 3, 1935, there was another
spectacular radio broadcast, with participation from both the “Normandie" and the Statue of
Liberty. An elaborate welcoming program
for the arrival of this majestic new passenger liner was prepared at a radio
studio in Washington DC, and this was presented live and fed by telephone line
(and probably by radio also) to the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island in New
York Harbor.

In the torch in the upheld hand of the Statue
of Liberty was a special radio transmitter that modulated a beam of light. This pulsating light beam from the Statue of
Liberty was picked up by a special radio receiver aboard the “Normandie” some five miles
distant.

The signal from the unique location
on Liberty Island was demodulated on the moving passenger liner and fed into
the public address system as well as into a 50 watt shortwave transmitter. This small and specially installed shortwave
transmitter on board the “Normandie”
relayed this roundabout radio broadcast back to New York where it was received
by mediumwave station WEAF and fed into the NBC Red Network for a nationwide
relay on mediumwave.

In addition, the General Electric
shortwave station at Schenectady, transmitter W2XAD, also carried the same
programming which was picked up in France and rebroadcast throughout their
country on mediumwave and longwave. In
addition, the French shortwave service also rebroadcast this unique program as
a relay to the world.

That unique and elaborate radio
broadcast was part of the spectacular welcome to the United States for the
majestic passenger liner “Normandie”
on the occasion of its first arrival in New York at the end of its maiden
voyage across the Atlantic. At the time,
it was the largest and most luxurious passenger liner afloat.

Seven years later, the world was at
war, in Europe and in the Pacific and Asia.
The United States was ready to launch its new international radio
broadcasting service on shortwave which soon afterwards was identified as the
Voice of America.

The first programming in this new
international radio venture was broadcast over already existing shortwave
transmitters and it was produced and co-ordinated in rented studios in New York
City. They needed to establish their own
studio facilities, but where should this be?

Early in the New Year 1942, Harold
Ickes, Secretary for the Interior in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Cabinet,
proposed to the president that a new suite of studios for this new
international Voice of America should be built on Bedloe’s-Liberty Island, next to the Statue
of Liberty. This location, he
proclaimed, would project to the world an image of liberty on the part of the
United States.

However, Elmer Davis, the newly
appointed director for OWI, the Office of War Information, sent a letter to
Harold Ickes, indicating that he understood the symbol in having the studios
near the Statue of Liberty. However, he
pointed out the logistical difficulties that VOA staff would encounter in
commuting by launch across the waterway to and from work and to various remote
appointments. The new studios were
installed instead, in Washington DC, the nation’s capital, where they remain to this day.